Culling the GW herds??

[FishermanTim]

Some mental genius (elected idiot) from the cape is going to propose they be allowed to bait and shoot GW's that come close to shore.



That is asinine on so many levels it isn't funny.

We (collectively) have been LEGALLY prevented from hunting/killing seals - you know those cute beach-claiming, fish depleting turd factories- while these idiots KNEW that it was just going to be a matter of time before the sharks showed up.

Now, because of the seal population explosion, the sharks have established our shores as a viable hunting ground.



If this idiot succeeds in his plan, maybe we can use the same tactics to get rid of him?



Sorry for the rant, but whenever I hear this kind of idiotic, asinine "logic' it makes me wince realizing this elected turd has power over ANYTHING!



Where was this 'Einstein" when there were talks about the seal population and their commandeering many southern MA beaches?????

[JohnR]

Way dumb. Can't kill the seals - they are too cute

[JLH]

Aren't GW sharks a protected species?

I agree the problem is the overabundance of seals. Do something about them before things get even worse.
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[DZ]

The conundrum is when you have two protected species like seals and sharks - which one do you protect over the other? Add man to the equation, then the possibility if there was a shark attack on a human all water activities such as swimming, surfing, etc, being outlawed on the Cape. The very real economic impact that it would have on Cape tourism if no one could legally go into the water? A scenario right out of the movie Jaws. I think by now the scientific community must have all sorts of data that proves the seal herd is overpopulated compared to historic levels. The catalyst for change will be a Cape shark attack that kills or maims a human. I researched shark nets used in Australia - effective but they entangle and kill other marine life - the animal lovers would have a hissy fit if a seal, turtle, or shark got killed being entangled in a net.

[Rockfish9]

How sad is this that an elected official could even THINK of something so stupid... and we wonder why our government cant make decisions...

Killing an apex predator to solve a non-problem so people can go paddle boarding...it's just too ridiculous for me to comprehend...if we ( humans) have to share the beaches and water ways with seals.. the GW shark has every right to be there as well..

I'm sure the Bob Barker or Bridget Bardot are being deployed for the shark rescue mission as I type this ....

[Mike P]

Originally Posted by Rockfish9

How sad is this that an elected official could even THINK of something so stupid... and we wonder why our government cant make decisions...

....

Beatty is 50 shades of stupid.

[Jim in CT]

I think it's amazing that nothing has happened yet, and I hope it continues to be a non-problem.

I don't have any issue with (and I think we have an obligation to) providing apex predators with wild, unspoiled places for them to do what they are supposed to do. Is Cape Cod the right place for that, given how many people go there, how many children are in the water? I dunno. I see both sides. Especially because I go there with my 3 young children, all 3 of whom love to ride the waves.

You'll have a lot of people more squeamish about killing the seals, then about killing the sharks. That's predictable, as John said, seals are cute and dog-like. It's not the shark's fault that public policy led to a seal explosion.

[FishermanTim]

Funny that Australia has a worse problem than we do, and they don't kill sharks...they keep the public informed and do what they can to keep them safe.


Our problem is that people are stupid, and will completely ignore the potential disaster just to get wet!

All they need to do is post "shark warning" signs in prominent places and tell people that the town and state are not responsible for "acts of God".

Again, I wonder how many lawsuits are filed in Australia after a shark attack in waters that are posted?

Put up shark nets for swimming areas and tell surfers that they are on their own!

[Ian]

Someone needs to order some laser beam headbands and arm a couple hundred seals with them. If a couple seals kill a couple humans before a couple sharks do, they'll want to kill all the seals... effectively getting rid of the sharks.

There, I solved our problem.

[Raider Ronnie]

Bring elected officials out to sea, throw everyone of them in the water and start shooting.
PROBLEM SOLVED 👍
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[buckman]

There is a need to cull 30+ thousand seals . The balance has been upset .
It's not a matter of if , but a matter of when someone gets seriously hurt. Simple solution, stay out of the water
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[Ian]

Wasn't there some calculation that there are multiple hundreds of thousands of seals off monomoy? Maybe I misread it somewhere
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[nightfighter]

What a dumbazz to even float that balloon.... He, along with many tree huggers, and the general public need to be edumacated about the real problem, which is the unabated growth of the seal population... Maybe he needs someone to connect the dots for him. Beach closures due to bacteria, that came from... seal poo poo. He needs to see that film of all the seals hauled out on the beach taken from a plane....

[Mike P]

In a showdown between two protected species, which one wins in the court of public opinion---the cute ones who can spin a ball on their noses, or the one that scares many people s******s?

Much easier, from a PR standpoint, for the government to declare the GWS "recovered" and allow culling, than reviving the image of drunken Inuits clubbing baby seals in the minds of a lot of people. And yeah, I know the seals we're dealing with aren't the cute cuddly ones.

[DZ]

Some of you may remember this article from another controversy a few years back:

Scientist Discovers Seals are Cause of Right Whale Decline

By John Falsehood (Herald News)

Scientists have recently discovered that seals have contributed to the demise of Right Whales. Last November local Marine Biologists witnessed colonies of seals attacking individual Right Whales as they migrated into Cape Cod Bay waters. The attacks were so severe that many Right Whales were killed. The disappearance of Right Whales has long been blamed on entanglements with commercial fishing gear and collisions with merchant ships in shipping lanes. But now Marine Biologists are saying that seals may in fact be responsible for declining numbers of Right Whales. When asked why seals would attack the whales noted Marine Biologist, Dr. Indablu Vater, said, “Seals are very territorial and do not like any other mammal to eat their food supply or live in the same sand beach areas the Cape is known for. They’ve already driven away the striped bass and bluefish and now they’re trying to drive away the Right Whales”, Vater continued.

But this development leaves area scientists with a conundrum as to which species to now protect. If seals, which are protected, are now killing Right Whales which are also protected, who should man help protect?
Vater, says that Piping Plovers may just be the answer. “Plover numbers are now exploding and it has long been known that seals are deathly afraid of the tiny birds, kind of like elephants being afraid of mice,” Vater mused.

But what should authorities do about the plovers if they start harassing the protected seals? Vater looked into the eye of this reporter and answered, “That’s where the Coyotes come into play.” Mass Wildlife has a wonderful Coyote stocking program that has been able to control the plover population for years, they’ll just have to bring more out to the Cape.”